JOHOR BAHARU, April 30— Johor Corporation (Johor Corp) has strengthened its participation in the oil and gas sector with the launch of a new offshore floating storage vessel at the Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd (MMHE) dockyard in Pasir Gudang here today.

Johor Corp Chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the US$40 million MT Fois Nautica Tembikai, owned by public listed company and Johor Corp unit EA Technique (M) Bhd, is for use by Vestigo Petroleum Sdn Bhd. "Johor Corp is involved in various fields, and this is part of the value chain.

"It's a large investment, but building a hospital would cost even more," he told reporters after the launch attended by Johor Corp President and Chief Executive Officer Datuk Kamaruzzaman Abu Kassim and EA Technique Chairman Ahamad Mohamad. EA Technique currently owns 33 marine vessels, said Mohamed Khaled, who is also Johor Menteri Besar. Meanwhile, Ahamad said the 186m-long Fois Nautica with a storage capacity of 300,000 barrels was formerly an international merchant vessel acquired on Aug 11 last year and later modified in line with the lease agreement signed on July 23 last year. He said the modifications for the US$63 million six-year contract were undertaken by local engineering firms and evaluated by Bureau Veritas offices in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Paris, while MMHE carried out the fabrication and installation works. The vessel will serve small fields offshore Peninsular Malaysia, he added. — Bernama